Friday, May 30, 2008

On May 17th, the Edwards girls (Joy, Deb, Katy, Heidi, and Teresa) completed a 5K together. It was such a great experience! Here we are at the finish line.

The 5K was at Thanksgiving Point and wove through the gardens. It was incredibly beautiful, but sort of a difficult course--the last mile was uphill!

We thought about all running together, but ended up getting split up. Here I am at the beginning of the race, before we entered the gardens.

Here is Joy and I crossing the finish line. I was so proud of all the Edwards girls, but especially proud of Joy. We've worked really hard together getting ready for the race.

Joy, Katy, and I went back to cross the finish line with Teresa and Deb. It was sweet to cross the finish line together.

Here we are with Pamela Hansen. Pamela wrote the book "Running With Angels" which is a story about how she overcame obesity and family struggles (death of two children and illness of surviving children) by walking/running and going to weight watchers. All the Edwards girls are trying to accomplish the same thing--lose weight by going to weight watchers and walking.

I think we've all read Pamela's book, and connected to it. When we heard she had organized a 5K, we all wanted to be a part of it. It was nice to meet her and thank her in person for sharing her story.

Mae stretched with me after the race. She is getting pretty good at mimicking.

The best thing about this race was there was no reward for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc; just a congratulations for FINISHING the race. It was a great race to run together, and a fabulous first race for the Edwards girls. We can't wait to do it again next year!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Last Saturday was a pretty special day for us. We were approached about a month ago to cater an event for the Young Alumni of BYU. They wanted to have a barbecue before the last home baseball game. We love BYU baseball (Jayson proposed to me at a game), so we gladly accepted. Then they offered something really special: they wanted a young alumni to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. They asked if Jayson would do it. What could we say...we'd be honored!

Jayson knows most of the athletic directors and coaches at BYU through J Dawgs, and throughout the week they offered him words of encouragement...or...errr...something like that. They told him that everyone lobs the ball to the plate, and they really wanted to see someone bring some heat! Jayson was a wee bit nervous, since he'd never played baseball. Could he really drive it home? Lets see how he did:

Here Jayson is before the pitch, getting some real words of encouragement from the coaches.

Jayson heads out to the plate...ready to go. The catcher follows...

Winding up...

Look at that face! He's really concentrating...

He made it. Sweet! The catcher brings Jayson the ball (he got to keep it).

And Jayson gets congratulated by Vance Law, head coach. (Jayson served his mission with Vance's sons, and has since become good friends with Vance. I think he's one of Jayson's favorite people, and I'll have to agree. Vance is probably one of the nicest people we know).

The national anthem...

We stayed for most of the game, until Mae passed the point of no return. Unfortunately the Cougars lost the game, but we had a great time relaxing at the ball park.

Joy, Kendra, Stella, Drew, and Shareka all came to support us. We were so grateful they were there! Aren't Drew and Mae Mae the cutest?

It really was a special day, and a memory we'll carry with us forever. It was an honor to have been asked to participate. How many times in your life will you be asked to throw out the first pitch? I'm guessing that might be it for us. Jayson did a great job. You can watch the video below.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

I really wanted to do something earthy on earth day. I had visions of doing something to help out the planet, or raise awareness of some plaguing issue, or something like that. As usual, I didn't make it happen. Instead, Mae and I wore our earth day shirts (hers made from organic cotton "little tree hugger", mine from recycled coke bottles "rehash your trash") and we went to Thanksgiving Point. Every year Thanksgiving Point has a tulip festival, and I have to be there. I love it.

This year, because its been so cold, the tulips were late in coming out. They were only at 40% when we went, and it was almost the end of April! Of course it was still beautiful, and we had a fabulous time.

Even when there are no flowers, Thanksgiving Point is still stunning to me. I love the water feature, which I believe is the largest man made waterfall in the United States.

All of these next pictures might look the same to you, but I love each of them. I think they all show off different parts of Mae's personality.

If you ask Mae to smile, she will. But she also closes her eyes, like this.

We visited all of their individual gardens, but we had the best time in the Secret Garden, and had it almost all to ourselves (which is a miracle!)

Mae went in and out of the door about 17 million times.

We played for a long time in the water.

We also had to jump off of every high ledge there was. If you say "one," Mae will enthusiastically say "two" and then something that resembles "three/one/wee!" and jump right to you. She'll even jump right to you if you haven't said anything and aren't paying attention.

Jayson taught me a lot about my camera and taking pictures. I still have no idea what I'm doing.

Mae took a little spill when we were leaving. Even when she's mad, she's still the most adorable thing to me. Look at that face!

I tried my best to make her feel better...

But as usual, she didn't want me. She wanted this guy....

He has a way with her that I never will.

We had such a fantastic time. I loved this calm evening together amiss all of the recent craziness.

There are a few things that Mae feels very passionately about. One of them is bubbles. I hear that word around 12 times per hour. She politely requests to go outside ("side") and grabs any container of bubbles she can find.

I've shopped around for bubbles quite a bit. I do enjoy the bubble wands ($1.00) I recently purchased at Walmart. The bubble wand creates large, quality bubbles. The only problem is the wand is not very sturdy and has broken a few times on me. I've tried some other bubbles, but I'm sold on a specific brand of bubbles: ice cream cone bubbles.

Joy told me about them, and I finally believed her enough to go pick some up. They are deliciously scented (I almost snacked on the mint yesterday) and adorably packaged. They can double as a chew toy for your baby. But above all else people, they are the best bubbles known to man. One little puff and 50 bubbles come out. They are long lasting and resilient. I L-O-V-E these bubbles.

If your child is a bubble fanatic like mine, head on over to the dollar tree and pick yourself up some ice cream bubbles. I just cleaned out the Provo location, so you may have to search around. (Three packages, $1.00).